


Just Another Island Paradise

by TessaSpencer2012



Category: The Nanny
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-21
Updated: 2012-09-20
Packaged: 2017-11-14 17:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaSpencer2012/pseuds/TessaSpencer2012
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another spin on a classic; a man, a woman and an island - whatever could go wrong?  Perhaps the better question to ask is, if Niles and CC were stranded on an island, would either of them ever make it off alive?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Washed to Shore

CC Babcock never claimed to be an 'average' woman. In fact, she strived to be anything but average. Maintaining a strict diet and exercise regiment, CC relied on the structure of her daily routine to maintain normalcy.

Perhaps that's why when CC awoke, face down in fine, white sand, she was not so concerned about her whereabouts as much as she was worried about the whereabouts of her luggage.

It took a moment for her to orient herself, and click back into reality. The roar of water from behind her was certainly no commonplace thing. Manhattan may be an island, but CC was hard pressed to remember the last time she saw the East River.

She remembered being on what could only be described as the vacation from hell, complete with a privately chartered yacht, and about three too many Sheffields – never mind the Butler and Nanny from hell. In fact, she distinctly remembered an annoying domestic in Bermuda shorts.

Cringing, CC wondered if it was all a bad dream, or if she really was trapped in a very-Brady hell.

Maybe the invitation had initially seemed … inviting, to say the least, but she soon learned that it wasn't meant as a deep-seeded desire as much as a pity invite.

That was only made more obvious as the trip wore on – further out to sea, and farther from any sense of sanity she could hope for.

By the third day of being almost completely neglected by Maxwell, mauled by screaming children racing about the boat, and tortured by the hired help, CC had given up hope for her safe return. Little did she know that by giving up that hope, she might actually throw herself into danger's way.

Nanny Fine had insisted, in her usual, nasal tone, that the family play charades. She even had the nerve to team her up with the boy and the butler – nothing less than a losing combination.

After an ass-kicking of epic proportions, and hearing Niles shout out 'SHAMU' every time she took to the front to do her enactments, CC argued with Niles about his inability to portray the appropriate pathos. He did, after all, have adequate personal material to rely on.

How her luggage ended up on the deck, she could not remember, but CC did remember the feeling of her body slamming against the water while her arms clung desperately to the $2000 state-of-the-art suitcase she ordered just for this farce of a vacation.

There may have been another splash, or it may have been her flailing, but she must have hit her head because the last thing that CC remembered was thinking that she would kill Niles, if only she lived long enough to do it.

Groaning, she rolled over, only to choke on sand in her mouth. Sputtering, she tried to force it past her lips, making a very unlady-like noise as she did.

"And leave it to Babcock to start off with something she knows well," Niles called at her, secretly relieved for signs of life.

When he first woke up, he had checked on her to make sure she was all right. Assured she was still breathing, and otherwise unwounded, Niles kept his distance, knowing full well that when she woke up, there would be hell to pay. "Wait 'til you discover where else you have sand."

For a moment, CC was secretly overjoyed at the realization she wasn't alone. That is, she was overjoyed until she realized she was not alone, but she was stuck with Bermuda Butler.  
Was this officially hell? Could she have survived was almost surely 'certain' death only to wind up stranded with her archenemy?

"Please tell me this is a hallucination and I'll wake up in a minute and I'll be dead?" CC pleaded.

"Oh, please. We wouldn't be so lucky – we end up afloat on an ocean only to be stranded on a deserted island…"

Sitting up, CC scowled. "How are you so sure it's deserted?" She dusted herself off and said a silent thank you to whatever deity had convinced her to wear navy instead of white. The last thing she needed was a transparent blouse.

"I swung by tourist information and picked up a brochure," Niles replied snidely. "While you were sleeping, I went for a walk. Unfortunately, we're not washed up on an island with inhabitants, if you'd rather think of it that way. You could probably walk this entire island in … an hour. Maybe two." He wasn't sure what was worse: his present company or the idea of being stranded here indefinitely.

"Are you sure you weren't walking in circles?" CC asked, condescendingly.

Niles shook his head. "It's good to see that our accident hasn't caused any permanent damage to what few brain cells you had, Miss Babcock. I'd hate for you to be at all grateful for me saving your life."

"Yeah, right. You saved my life. And on our way to this island you grew a soul, palm-peasant! Now, tell me. How bad is it?" The lines of her face became very serious as her eyes narrowed in their glare at him.

"Well," Niles said slowly, "we have no way of contacting anyone, we fell overboard in the middle of the night, so nobody knows where we are, and the only supplies we have, if you can even call it that, is whatever you have in your suitcase."

CC was overjoyed at this development. "Where is it?" He face was alight like that of a child on Christmas morning. Anything, even Niles, was tolerable as long as she had her luggage.

"What kind of sadist makes waterproof, buoyant luggage?" He asked, scowling. The fact that it washed ashore in tact and looking as if it just came off the assembly line had been almost as disturbing as to see what was attached to it – a very waterlogged CC Babcock.

CC merely grinned. "You can't say it won’t come in handy – I have all my things. Thank God!"

Niles shook his head. Leave it to Babcock to be indifferent to being alive, but overjoyed at having her luggage. "It's under that tree, at the wood line," he replied. "I still don't know how it floated as it did, and under your weight as well."

With a wicked grin, CC stood and brushed off her clothes. "I buy only the best, Niles. This is the Lamborghini of luggage. It's waterproof, lightweight, and buoyant up to 50 pounds."

Running her fingers across the champagne-colored brushed titanium, she contemplated her change of wardrobe. Not that she would be dressing for his benefit, of course, but she had packed a number of items which would be entertaining to sport in front of him.

"You don't know what we might be able to use to make things easier around here," she replied with a wicked grin on her face. Sometimes she really loved being a woman – and when she could be relatively free of inhibitions, she intended to enjoy every minute of it.

"You're right," he exclaimed, frustrated both with her and the situation. "I could use your panty hose to hang myself."

"Don't let me stop you," she replied, sliding the combination pins into place and opening the case to reveal what Niles swore must have been the most organized bag he ever saw. Pulling a pair of nylons out, she extended her hand to him. "I know taupe isn't really your color, but I suppose it would suit the purpose."

He couldn't help it, no matter how hard he tried. Niles felt a smile break past his lips; he loved sparring with this woman. "Oh, but can you afford to give those away? Didn't the doctor say that it would stop those nasty veins on your legs from spreading?"

CC growled at him and returned the stockings to the bag. He always had to have the last word, didn't he? This was their way, and even if other people didn't understand it, it was what worked for them. Still, would a little kindness from time to time kill him?

"You know, if we have to stay here waiting to be rescued, we may have a few problems," Niles said, gravely.

"Firstly, we won't be here long. I'm CC Babcock. They'll spare no expense to find me." When she stopped speaking, she looked quite proud of herself.

"And secondly?" He just couldn't wait to hear this.

"Secondly," she said, rising to her full height, "any problems we encounter are yours. As the domestic on this island, AND the person who got us into this mess, you're responsible for fixing it." It wasn't quite how she intended to say it, but for all intents and purposes it would suffice. Mostly she wanted to rid herself of the sand, which was all too well known to her now.

"Oh, really?" Niles glowered at her. "Well... I'm not your butler and I don't see how this is my fault!" The moment the words snuck past his lips he knew he was doomed.

"Oh? Might I remind you who pushed whom overboard?" CC was ready for a fight. As far as she was concerned, Niles practically pushed her towards certain death.

Niles fought the urge to say something spiteful. After all, he had been the person to show up on deck, suitcase in hand, and demand that she return to her natural habitat and join the other whales on their migration.

What he hadn't anticipated was that he would lose his balance and end up sending her careening overboard, clutching her designer luggage. "Neither one of us is perfectly innocent," he admitted, "but I never meant you any real harm."

"Sure you didn't," she replied sarcastically.

"I didn't," he said, again, and this time with the pathos she had been trying to get from him the night before during their ill-fated game. "We're here for however long, and I just don't want this to be a constant uphill battle. We have enough challenges to face – let us not be another." Reaching his hand toward her, in a gesture of good will, he slowly thought of what to say next. "I am genuinely sorry for anything I've done to you, including pushing you into the ocean."

CC wasn't quite sure how to respond to his newfound kindness. Clearly he meant at least a part of what he was saying or else he wouldn't have looked so wounded.

"Ok," she said. It wasn't a statement or a peace offering, but it was a response and he was the one at fault. Then again, if he really intended for her to die, he probably wouldn't have dove in after her, risking his own life in the process.

"Ok," he agreed, hoping they had forged some sort of silent peace pact. "However long we're trapped here, we need to figure out a way to survive. I was never a boy scout. Were you?" he asked, with an impish grin on his face.

"I would have thought you'd be a much better girl guide. I, on the other hand, have no training when it comes to hunting and foraging. Mind you, if I can survive show business, one little island can't be so bad, can it?"

Niles laughed. He had to hand it to her. Babcock really knew how to keep her wits about her. If it had been Fran on that island, she probably would have broken down the minute she realized there was no Ming's Chinese Delivery.

"I'm going to look around the island – there has to be a fresh water source somewhere," he said, silently praying he was right.

"I'm going to get changed," CC said matter-of-factly. "I feel remarkably overdressed," she admitted, pondering her wardrobe change. The idea of shaking up the butler seemed like a good one, at least for a fleeting moment, but there was also the question of what would happen if he didn't like what he saw.

Swallowing back a rush of self-consciousness, CC shook her head and instead opted for the more casual, covered look. Soon they'd be rescued and life would be normal again, and in the meantime, there was no reason to invite the torrent of insults she knew only Niles could throw at her.


	2. Assessing the Situation

Niles was discouraged when he wandered the island, only to find no fresh water source. As far as he was concerned, any other trouble would be easily navigated, but a lack of water would mean almost certain death.

And those were the more optimistic thoughts he had while he was wandering the island. There had been very little wildlife, and that which was there was mostly of the annoying insect variety.

Thankfully, if nothing else, he stumbled upon some berries. There would at least be something edible, and they wouldn't starve to death.

Walking back along the beach to where he began, he was surprised to see CC sitting against a tree, her legs crossed, and a file folder resting on them. Her hands were slathering white lotion on her skin and her hair was tucked up into a barrette at the back of her head.

It seemed like the kind of thing that happened in those novels that Nanny Fine always read – and that he would sometimes flip through at night, when he couldn't sleep.

It was bad enough they were stranded on a desert island, but that he was trapped there with the woman who provided him more joy and frustration than any other was just unfathomably cruel. It was made worse only by the way she looked as she flipped through the file a moment later. It was unnatural, to see CC Babcock looking so innocent, or so incredibly beautiful.

CC had changed while he was gone into a white tennis skirt, and a pair of white sandals. The royal blue bikini top she was wearing was unlike anything he had ever seen on her, and for a moment, Niles thought about sneaking up behind her and surprising her with a kiss.

Was the situation already going to his head? Not that he hadn't thought about her in 'that' way before, but was it really necessary to be faced with those thoughts, on top of facing the uncertainty of the island?

"You're working?" he asked, trying not to think about how her skin was glistening from the sunscreen that was still absorbing. "You realize that if we die here, it won't matter what revisions you make to those, right?"

CC tore her attention away from the contract only long enough to give Niles the most disdainful glare she could manage. Turning her attention back to her papers, CC sighed. Clearly he had no concept of reality.

"Maybe if it was just you, they'd leave you to die, but I'm here too, and there's no way that they'll leave me here. It's only a matter of hours until someone shows up and then I'm on the first plane back to Manhattan. This vacation thing is over-rated," she said sternly.  
Niles fought back the urge to laugh. Of course CC thought that everything would work out – she was from a family of old money, where the almighty dollar bought their way out of predicaments of all varieties.

Niles, on the other hand, had never had such stellar luck. Even with a full scholarship to Eton and a brilliant mind, he couldn't escape the entrapments of his family's legacy. Being a butler was most of what he was destined to be. He thought that being alone was the other part of his fate, but so far fate was seeing fit to torture him with CC's company.

"There's only two ways this can go: we're rescued and we get to go back home, at which point you return to your penthouse and I return to my enslavement, or, and this I think is much more likely, we slowly degrade into a state of delirium and die from exposure, dehydration, and probably starvation…"

So maybe it wasn't the most optimistic outlook, but for the moment he felt anything but lucky, and the idea of dying on an island, with CC Babcock, no less, was just too much for him to handle.

"Jeez, aren't you melodramatic?" she asked, looking up at him. There was a degree of concern in her eyes that she had never seen directed at him before. Maybe it was that she needed someone to take care of her, or maybe it was that she was genuinely concerned, but the fact that she looked at him that way at all made Niles feel a little more grounded.

"I'm hungry," he whined, this time taking a seat beside her on the ground. He was pleased when she closed the file folder she was reading and gave him her full attention. "I didn't have time to make breakfast while I was trying to get you, your luggage, and myself back to safety…"

"Aw, poor Broom Hilda," she said sarcastically. "It's not like skipping a meal or two would hurt either of us." Without another word, she reached down beside her, and a moment later she handed Niles a snack bar. "I had one in my luggage," she said, by way of a half-assed offer.

Niles stared at the food as if it had fallen directly from heaven. "I won't ask why you had this in the first place – I'll just appreciate it for what it is."

"Something to stick in your mouth to shut you up?" CC replied quickly, a wicked grin on her face.

"If you wanted to shut me up," Niles replied coyly, "I can think of much better things to stick in my mouth…"

CC felt a flush creep over her chest, as she thought about the implications. Niles had already moved on to eating the bar, but here she was, pondering what he meant.

Did it mean that he was thinking about her in the same way that she, under very limited circumstances, thought about him? Or, was the sun and the situation already getting to him? Instead of thinking about it much more, she raised a clear bottle to her lips, and took a long swig.

"You have water? And you didn't tell me?" He mumbled around a mouthful of granola and berries. He looked exhausted and totally exasperated.

Smiling, she took another gulp. "Vodka. I never travel without it." Without another thought, she chugged back a long swig. "You never know how long I'll be stuck listening to that annoying Nanny drone on and on. At least this gives me a reprieve from her shrill voice."

Reaching down, he tried to pry the bottle from her hand but CC would not let go. "Give it to me, woman!"

"No! You will not take away my vodka. It's bad enough I'm stuck here with you to keep me only mildly entertained. If you want some, you're going to have to drag your ass to a liquor store and buy some of your own!"

"You'll make yourself even more dehydrated. Do you actually want to risk dying even sooner than we probably already will?"

Something about the grave tone of his voice made her think twice. It's not as if they were guaranteed rescue immediately. And if she thought about it, there probably was quite a serious possibility that rescue could take a few days. After all, there were probably hundreds of islands they passed on their six-day excursion, and with their luck, the current could have carried them anywhere.

"Fine. I'll save it for when we're rescued. It'll be my celebratory drink," she said calmly, putting it down. "Besides, I don't feel like listen to you nag me. You're almost as bad as that awful Nanny."

"Only almost?" Niles asked sweetly, oddly surprised that she hadn't said he was worse. Considering their relationship, he would have thought that the animosity she felt for him outshone that which she felt for Fran.

"You haven't yet mastered that high-pitch squeal of hers," she said quickly, almost regretting letting her guard down for that moment. "Now, what did you find on your travels?"

Niles shrugged. "Nothing. We're definitely alone here, and from what I can tell, I don't think anyone's been here in a long time, if ever."

"You're optimistic, aren't you?"

"Well, I haven't figured out where we're going to sleep, what we're going to drink, what we're going to eat… I'm not sure there are enough answers to all the questions racing through my mind right now."

CC stared pensively out at the ocean. It was probably the single most beautiful horizon she had ever seen, but she wasn't so naïve as to think that this was going to be easy – the sun was rising higher in the sky and the temperature was somewhere between hot and hotter-than-hell. "I suppose we should probably figure out the lunch thing, and then worry about where we're going to sleep."

Niles nodded. "All I've seen are coconuts, leaves, more coconuts, a few berries, more leaves…and tons of water we can't drink."

"Well, there must be some fruit, somewhere, right?"

Niles shook his head. "Where ever it is, I've not found it."

"Well, then I guess for now we have coconut. And we deal with the rest of it as it comes," CC said, for once being somewhat optimistic. Clearly he was concerned about their situation, and if one of them wasn't the voice of the reason, then they might as well both go crazy.

"I hate coconut," Niles complained. "It's the one thing that I just can't stand…"

CC laughed. "You're going to have to get used to it."

Staring at the coconut in his hand, Niles groaned. He'd have to think of alternative food arrangements soon, or else island life would prove to be the best diet he would ever embark on. "We need fire," he said, delaying the inevitable.

Pulling a lighter from her pocket, CC smiled. "I thought that might be the next step."

The overwhelming urge to kiss her was just too great – no matter how much he resented the suitcase, at least he had to admit that it was coming in handy. "Do you want to work on getting the coconuts open, or do you want to go gather wood and leaves to get the fire going?"

"I'll work on the coconuts," she said easily, watching as his shoulders slumped forward. "I don't want to get dirty."

Growling, Niles watched for a moment as she prepared her work area. Clearly, CC wasn't going into this blindly – she had already considered what would need to be done.

He couldn't decide if that was more infuriating or attractive.


End file.
